


why the fuck now?

by softkent (SalazarTipton)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, OFC - Freeform, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23572462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalazarTipton/pseuds/softkent
Summary: kent starts coughing up petals on nhl ice of all places
Relationships: Kent "Parse" Parson/Jeff "Swoops" Troy
Comments: 13
Kudos: 64





	why the fuck now?

**Author's Note:**

> im obsessed with hanahaki disease fics but didnt have the patience to write a full slow burn, word building thing so here's this instead!   
> wrote this fast and didn't look it over that well, so let me know if you see any issues (nicely pls and thnx)

The Schooners’ coach calls for a time out. Kent skates over towards the Aces bench shaking his head to himself. There’s no saving them at this point. The third period is half over and they haven’t scored all game. Kent’s seen the tides turn in the last five more times that he can count--both for and against him--but this ain’t that kind of game. The Schooners have been skating like it’s a loss since Swoops made his second goal. 

He takes off his bucket and tries to brush the sweaty hair away from his face. Swoops skates up beside him and ruffles it all to hell, making it a thousand times worse than before. He pouts at him, but can’t keep it there. Swoops is radiating hyped up energy. He’s so close to his first hatty of the season. Just one more goal. And Kent wants to help him get there. They lean together as Coach Wallace talks to the guys. 

Kent feels a familiar burning in his chest and curses to himself. He ignores the look Swoops shoots him. The first few coughs he hides behind his glove, but they don’t stop. He can feel the petals clinging to the back of his throat. In another cough, he starts tasting the blood. It’s shaking his whole frame hard enough that he grabs hold of the boards for support. 

_ Why the fuck now? _ He asks the universe grimly. He’s been fine for weeks with the coughing and those damn purple flower petals littering his apartment. The only saving grace was that it hadn’t been happening on the ice or around the Aces. And now it’s happening in someone else’s barn with half the cameras on him. 

He knows that’s exactly why it’s happening now. He knew this was coming. It’s not some big secret how this  _ disease spreads _ . First the coughing and chest aches, then the flower petals, then the blood, then… 

When he can finally straighten himself up again he notices the hands helping sturdy him. Swoops has him tucked into his side, eyes wide and scared. Kent can see it all click and come together as the cogs.

“Kenny…” he forces out in a whisper like it’s punched out of him. It’s not pity, but Kent can’t quite grip onto what exactly his big brown eyes are trying to tell him, or maybe ask. 

Before Kent can figure it out, he’s being ushered off the ice and taken through the tunnel into medical. Their checking his breathing and asking him question after question, but none of it is in focus. All Kent can really see is the petals sticking to the blood on his gloves someone took off him and put over on the exam table across from his. 

From the sense of urgency in the room, he could mistake it for a concussion scare. All the questions about his life, what he’s feeling right now, and not really hearing anything once his eyes shift focus away from whoever is talking. But this is a hell of a lot more complicated. And unlike a concussion, this is something the league doesn’t have any clue how to deal with since they’ve never seen it before (at least not to the point where it’s public knowledge).

He isn’t coughing anymore. When they listen to his chest for the third time he wants to just push them away. No amount of data collected right now is going to fix him and they all fucking know that. There are a finite amount of ways this’ll end and none of them are in any of their hands. 

“Give it a rest, alright? We all know what’s going on and you’re not gonna fix me!” he finally blows up. He puts his head in his hands, fingers carding through his wild bangs, and waits for them to leave. 

After a few seconds, there’s shuffling and the sound of the door swinging shut. There’s still someone in the room, but not being so crowded is helping Kent breathe a little easier. He looks through his fingers to see who’s left. The head physical therapist, Carla, is leaning against the exam table, looking over at his gloves with a blank expression. 

“You should have told us, Parser.”

He sighs, letting his hands fall away from his face and into his lap. He can’t bring himself to look at her properly. She’s been with the Aces almost as long as he has and they’ve had their fair share of butting heads over Kent not caring for himself up to her standards. 

“You would have taken me off the ice, and I...I wanted to play as long as I could.”

“Kent…” 

“Don’t, okay? I don’t want pity or any of that bullshit. I know what’s happening and I know the outcome. No need to putter around it.”

She stands up and puts her hands on her hips, mulling over exactly what she wants to say to him. He watches her bite her lip and look away for a second. “This doesn’t have to be the end of the line,  _ and you know it _ . The game ended. We won and Troy got his hatty. I gotta go check on everyone. You wanna stay in here for a minute?”

Kent nods with a soft smile. “If he’s not trapped in a scrum, mind sending Swoops in?”

She lightly grips his shoulder as she walks by him towards the exit, “Sure, Parser. Whatever you need.”

The walk to the locker room isn’t a long one. She knows Troy is stuck with the media talking about his hat trick (and hopefully avoiding all the pointed questions about Kent without throwing any punches), but she knows better than to make him wait for this. She heard from one of her assistants that he’s been trying to get to Kent since the second his blades left the ice. 

Carla steps into the room and catches his eyes immediately. Before she can even give him the nod to come over, he’s curtly cutting off the scrum and heading across the room before anyone can throw another question at him. It’ll get him a talking-to later, but his face is pure determination. 

“He wants to see you. Come on.” She turns back towards the hall, not bothering to check if he’s following. 

“How is he?”

“You know I’m not going to talk about his condition, so why don’t you wait until you can ask him yourself?”

He sighs hard and ducks his head down until they reach medical. 

Kent has his back to the door and his head bowed. Carla nudges Swoops in and shuts the door behind him, giving them some privacy. Swoops clears his throat totally at a loss of how to tackle all this. 

“I know what you want from me, but I’m not getting surgery and I’m not going to tell you  _ who _ because once I do, you’ll try to do something about it.” 

“Damn right I will! Parse, I can’t just sit back and watch you--you  _ kill yourself _ because somebody doesn’t realize how amazing you are. I’m not gonna do it! I care about you too fucking much!” Swoops yells. 

He frowns as he swallows down all the emotions building up in his throat, but it doesn’t stop the tears in his eyes from slipping down his cheeks. He pulls at his hair, spinning in place to look away from Kent for just a second. 

“Could...could you just--”

Swoops spins back to face him at the hiccup in Kent’s voice effectively cutting him off. He hasn’t seen him cry in, hell, since their last cup loss. His eyes are red and puffy, but his tears haven’t fallen yet. Inside they’re stuck clinging to his thick, blond lashes. He steps forward, collecting Kent up in his long arms and squeezing him against his chest. He can’t stop the whimper that comes out of him when Kent tucks his head into his neck and finally lets go. 

“I can’t lose you,” Swoops whispers into his skin like a prayer, willing the Universe to get in line. “I love you too damn much to let that happen.”

“Jeff,” Kent says in a soft, forlorn voice with the words wisping against his own sweat-soaked skin. “That’s the problem...you really don’t.”

“What?” He pulls back and cups Kent’s face in his hands, forcing him to look him in the face. 

Kent shuts his eyes and shakes his shakes so slightly Swoops wouldn’t be able to tell if he weren’t holding him. He wasn’t going to let him get out of this easily. 

“What do you mean, Kenny?” He watches Kent’s features pinch together and his Adam's apple bob in his throat. “Is it...is it me?” 

When Kent nods, he can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of his and the smile breaking open his split lip from their last game. Kent tries to get out of his grasp, pushing at his chest and Jeff realizes his mistake. 

“No, no, Kent! That’s not what I meant. I really do love you. So all this? Just another example of how you need to fucking communicate, buddy.”

Kent finally opens his eyes again, this time with his tears smeared across his face and his mouth parted like he wants to say something, anything, but can’t find the words. 

“How is it that even in a deadly serious and emotional moment you still manage to be a fucking dick?” Kent laughs out. 

“Eh, it’s part of my charm.” Swoops leans down a little to press a simple peck to Kent’s forehead to smooth out the wrinkles there. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading. please pleaaase let me know what you think! i'd love to chat down in the comments with yooooou <3 <3   
> come find me over on tumblr @ softkent


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